Simply Retouch

Learn how to retouch your photos in photoshop.

Open a photo.

First, as always, duplicate the Background layer.

Go to Image> Adjustments> Shadow/Highlight. To darken the shadows I really only need to move the Shadows Amount slider to the left: in this case a setting of 1% works. I won’t mess with the highlights, but I am increasing the Color Correction slider-setting to +10, and adjusting the Midtone Contrast to a setting of +40. Click OK.

Just that simple adjustment has already brightened the skin and further darkened the hair and background. Let’s keep going with this though.A cool trick to separate the light pixels, or highlights, and place them in a separate layer. To do this the shortcut key combination CTRL+ALT+ ~ (Tilde, next to the 1 key) for PC or OPTION+COMMAND+ ~ to select the highlights. Then simply Copy and paste them into a new layer. Command/Control+Click the new layer to select the highlights.

Now you can adjust the highlights separately from the rest of the photo. For instance, an increase in Brightness/Contrast should work well for this tutorial. Here are my settings applied to the Highlights layer.

Let’s add one more lighting trick to give the subject the attention she deserves. A simple Lighting Effects filter application should do the trick.

After all that, the one problem I think should be addressed is the increase of the yellow cast. By creating a Color Balance adjustment layer and reducing the Yellow/increasing the Blue just a bit in the Highlights and Midtones, we should be able to get a warmer color and a bit more natural.